They often do not trust the money driven, drug and surgery dependent medical establishment. Why then do they all say consult your doctor first before going on a fast? There is a simple answer to that.

I would be willing to say that most medical doctors have:

1. Never been on a fast personally.

2. No real belief in fasting for the healing and purifying benefits of a fast.

3. Never truly studied fasting as opposed to starvation and malnutrition.

The usual medical view in the cases of illness is to make the patient eat. If the patient is too weak or too incapacitated to eat, they will put a tube in their veins or directly into their stomach and force feed them. Even if you are in the intensive care coronary unit recovering from a massive heart attack, not only will they bring you lots of food, but lots of greasy food. If you have visited people in the hospital then you know that this is true. Modern medicine does not provide you with a healthy diet in what is supposed to be the epitome of healing places, the hospital. Even the word "hospital" itself comes from the root word "hospice", which means "a place to die".

Doctors are necessary in this society. Most are honest, dedicated, hard working people. Maybe modern medicine has not moved in the direction of natural cures because that's not what the patient wants.

If we are stricken by the most common of the killers of Americans, the heart attack, we want drugs. We want a shot, or a pill that will make the problem, or at least the pain, go away, and go away without sacrifice or effort on our part.

We do not want to hear the doctor say:Stop smokingStop eating fried foodsStop eating fatty foodsStop eating saltStop drinking alcoholStop eating so much that you remain fatStart exercising regularlyStart eating low calorie healthy foodsGet lean get fit get sweaty, Throw away the TV remote controlWalk in the fresh airPush away from the table and live

The public does not want to hear these words at all. The public wants to eat, drink, and be merry, then die.

A reporter attended a convention of cardiologists (heart specialists). The reporter decided to follow some cardiologists to see how they ate. She was shocked at how many of the cardiologists ate the greasy hamburgers and fries at the local "fast food" hamburger outlet at the convention center.

It was against everything that these specialist taught about how to eat! When the reporter interviewed several cardiologists about their dietary habits they said in essence, "It's easy to tell someone else how to eat, it's a lot harder to do it yourself."

Doctors are not required to take nutrition courses. They are not required to know a thing about fasting. They may or may not know about fasting, and the answer is more likely "they don't know". Why then do all of the natural healing oriented promoters of fasting always tell you to check with your doctor before you fast?

FOR THE EXACT SAME REASON I WILL TELL YOU TO CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE YOUR FAST!

Because if something bad happens to you on the fast, you cannot say I didn't tell you to check with your doctor.

It's a precaution that does have its merits. Unsupervised fasting can be dangerous. Modern medicine can be more dangerous. Just as fasting experts tell you to consult your doctor to determine risks, ask your doctor to let you see the "contraindications" on the medicines they give you.

The contraindications are a VERY LONG list of things that can go wrong when you take a medicine. Every medicine that a doctor will give you has them. The contraindicators can be anything from a rash or headache, to death.

The list is usually quite long with all medicines. We call contraindications simply "SIDE EFFECTS." This is the stuff that can happen that we do not want to happen. The list of side effects are "POSSIBLE" side effects. Some side effects are rare, some are common. Some are very mild and just a mere nuisance, some can put you in the ground. Medicines can be VERY dangerous. There is risk in all cures. Especially the farther one moves away from what is naturally in the earth.

To illustrate what I mean, drugs and their side effects are listed below from THE PILL BOOK and The U.S. Pharmacopoeia. According to surveys of chain drug stores, mail order, and drug wholesalers, these are the 10 most prescribed drugs in America.

Each of the medicines are listed with their most common classification or use followed by the side effects. This does not include the other warnings that describe under which conditions not to take the medicine and what other drugs not to mix them with.

Remember these are the top selling drugs at the moment, this means these are most likely among the SAFEST of the drugs.

Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if any do occur you may need medical attention.

Remember, these are the side effects that the drug companies tell you about!

6. Dyazide (diuretic-prescribed for high blood pressure or any condition where it is desirable to eliminate water from the body) - Loss of appetite, drowsiness, lethargy, headache, gastrointestinal upset, cramping and diarrhea, rash, mental confusion, fever, feeling of ill health, inability to achieve or maintain erection in males, bright red tongue, burning inflamed feeling in the tongue, headache, tingling in the toes and fingers, restlessness, anemias or other effects on components of the blood, unusual sensitivity to sunlight, dizziness when rising quickly from a sitting position, muscle spasms, gout, weakness, and blurred vision.

These are the top 10 prescription drugs from THE PILL BOOK.(drug names are trademarks of their respective manufacturers)

Anyone that takes prescription medication should have a copy of this book. It gives detail descriptions of the 1,600 most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. If you are going to take these drugs, you should know the possible side effects.

All of these top 10 warn "do not take this drug if you have had an allergic reaction to it." Of course, the only way to know if you are allergic to the drug is if you have already had a bad reaction to it or something similar to it. Too often, that one bad reaction is enough and too much. That one bad allergic reaction can KILL you. There is another warning on the top 10 that's also scary.

ALL OF THE TOP TEN DRUGS PASS THROUGH IN BREAST MILK!

Many of them pass through in the blood stream but ALL of them pass through in breast milk. The same reactions that an adult can have, so can an infant if the mother breast fed the child or was pregnant with the child while taking the prescription.

The same can also be said of general toxins or M.E.S.S. in a woman's body, it passes through to the child. That's just another reason why a woman would want her bloodstream and body detoxified and FAST FLUSHED, to provide a clean environment for her child.

I have listed these top 10 to show you that even though fasting can have side effects, SO CAN ANYTHING YOU GET FROM A DOCTOR!

There is still no true count of the deaths caused by prescription drug reactions. Considering the alternatives, if done in time, fasting is a safer method of cleansing the body and getting on the road to being disease free than any medicine from a prescription pad.

Go see a doctor, but ask your doctor at least two questions. 1. Have you ever fasted?2. Do you really know anything about fasting?

If they answer no to both questions then go see another doctor. You will probably have to visit a doctor that specializes in natural medicine and natural healing methods. Look in the yellow pages, but find a specialist that knows what they are doing concerning fasting.

I honestly would recommend that anyone, (especially with a very toxic body), see a doctor (a doctor that really KNOWS about fasting, not just ANY doctor) before beginning a LONG fast. Short fasts (under five days) should not be a health danger for the vast majority, ESPECIALLY IF THEY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS BOOK!

It's amazing that of the many destructive things that we do to our bodies, we never consulted a doctor before starting them. Equally amazing, they are against all Biblical and other religious teaching.

Did you ask a doctor before you . . .

smoked - cigarettes, crack, or marijuana?

had unprotected sex with someone you weren't absolutely sure didn't have a disease?

ate that greasy heart clogging digestive system cluttering meal?

drove that car with no seat belt?

had those six-packs and got drunk?

let that potbelly budge out in front?

No, you didn't, did you?

God did not ordain or condone ANY of those behaviors but you did not ask a doctor before you did them. Yet everyone tells you to ask a doctor before you fast. What God ordained, they want you to ask a doctor about.

God ordained fasting. Jesus said "when ye fast" NOT "IF," BUT "WHEN YE FAST"Matthew 6:16. The instruction and correctness of fasting did not come from natural healing doctors or ancient medicine. They recognized the benefits and the correctness of fasting, but they didn't originate it.

Fasting came out of the spiritual tradition of ALL the major religions. Whether you are one of the sixty something different denominations of Christianity, or Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist, fasting is strongly suggested in all major religions and commanded in some.

It was not man's invention. It came from a higher surgeon general. Then why do we need to ask a doctor if we should do something God ordained for us to do?

If I had to have side effects, I would rather get them from something God instructed me to do than from the needle or pill of man's medicine. Fasting's side effects are the results of purification. The side effects of drugs are the result of increasing the toxicity already in the body.

Read the list (the list the doctors are given by the drug companies) of the side effects of the top drugs again. The list may change every decade, but the side effects remain essentially the same. That same list of side effects will be just as accurate 100 years from now, only the top ten drugs will change.

Ask a doctor, but ask a doctor that knows about fasting, better still, ask a doctor that has personal experience with fasting. For even though I had read much about fasting, I did not believe much of what I read until I experienced it.

You will find that the greatest doctor of all has already been given to you.